Where Do I Start? Top 3 Things You Can Do To Start a Daily Supplement and Wellness Routine

We get it. It’s hard to know exactly where to start when you’re stepping into the world of natural medicines, supplements and daily wellness routines. There are thousands of social media accounts, books and experts to choose from and they all promise that their way is the best. While some of these resources may hold merit, taking it all in and knowing where to start for your specific needs can get overwhelming.

At Wholly Holistic, we have gathered and analyzed hundreds of resources and put together the top three things anyone should do to get started in a good daily wellness and supplement routine. Once you have these three goals met, then you can think about adding in your personal needs like cardiovascular health, hormone balancing, etc.

Step 1: Take a Good Multivitamin Every Day

a table top with blueberries, strawberries, mint leaves, and multivitamin tablets

Our bodies are designed to thrive on a daily balance of basic vitamins and minerals, many of which we can get from food. Eating a diet rich in multicolored vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes (beans) and healthy fats ensures that you’re meeting the needs of your organs.

But eating everything you’re supposed to eat every day can be hard to do, particularly if you’re on a budget or you don’t have easy access to nutritious food stores. This is where a good multivitamin and mineral supplement comes in. Multivitamins are designed to help fill the gaps in your daily nutrition and support your immune system, bones, skin, and other organs.

What makes a good multivitamin?

Look for a multivitamin that fits your specific body. For example, there are multivitamins for prenatal, pregnancy and post-pregnancy, children, people over 55, and so on. Each blend is specifically crafted to support what your body may be lacking during these times in your life.

Look for a multivitamin that does not have a lot of filler ingredients because your body may not absorb that much. This is one of those instances where you get what you pay for!

As an added bonus to your run-of-the mill multivitamin, we at Wholly Holistic carry multivitamins that include whole foods (like berries) in the tablets. Taking these ensures you’re boosting your nutrition and adding the foods that you may not enjoy eating or that you miss from time to time.

What side effects are there for multivitamins?

Most people can take multivitamins without worry of side effects, but if you have a specific condition, it is always good to double-check how the vitamins you are considering may interact with your specific health conditions. For example, Vitamin K should be avoided for people who are on blood thinners. Nausea and upset stomach are common side effects of vitamins that can be mitigated by taking them with a meal. In fact, some vitamins, like vitamin D, are best absorbed with foods that contain fat.

Step 2: Take Care of Your Gut

New research and discoveries are being made every day about how much your digestive system plays a role in both your physical and mental health. The gut-brain connection is a flow of nerves that send signals between your brain and your digestive system. These nerves also work closely with your endocrine system, which produces the hormones that communicate things like hunger, fullness and stress. And, all of these work together with your immune system to respond to injury or disease.

The gut-brain communication is vital in keeping our instincts sharp and our overall health in check. In fact, the connection is so important that many call the gut our “second brain”.

Microbiome and your health.

Each of us has our own unique combination of microscopic bacteria, fungi, parasites, and viruses that make up our intestinal microbiome. No two of us are alike! These organisms work in concert to make up your whole world of health; everything from breaking down your food to training your immune system to recognize bad pathogens. Feeding your microbiome a variety of foods helps it to thrive and ensures that the rest of your mind and body function properly.

What foods should I eat that are good for my gut?

Eating a variety of whole grains, fruits, vegetables and legumes (beans and nuts) is the best way to feed your microbiome. Whole foods like these digest slowly and have tons of good nutritious benefits. Because they stay in your gut longer, your intestines have more time to latch onto the nutrients and absorb them.

Aiming for at least 20-30 different fruits and vegetables per week is key. Spices and herbs count in this number, too. So, adding turmeric to a smoothie, fresh basil to a tomato sandwich and fruit in your water bulks up what you’re ingesting and feeds your microbiome what it loves. For whole grains, think beyond bread to delicious steel-cut oats, barley, farrow, rice, and quinoa. The easiest way to get started is to make the food you normally make, switching out different grains, and adding in a variety of new vegetables and fruit.

The digestive system as a whole tends to love bitter things and thrives on fermented foods like sauerkraut, kimchi and pickled vegetables. Adding in a daily dose of apple cider vinegar and root herbs like burdock and ginger keep the microbiome thriving.

What happens when my gut is out of whack?

When your microbiome doesn’t have enough variety to keep it thriving, it will die off and that means your whole body can get out of whack, making you more prone to stress and disease. Think about how you feel after a big holiday meal full of rich foods and drinks that you don’t normally consume every day. We can all relate to that sluggish feeling. While you may only eat that way a handful of times a year, your daily diet may still contain food and drink that harm our good gut bacteria, such as ultra-processed foods.

When your microbiome is not thriving, you might experience:

Constipation
Sluggishness
Difficulty focusing
Depression
Diarrhea
Anxiety
Bloating and inflammation
Acid reflux
Hard to lose weight (low metabolism)
Stress

Where do I start with daily gut health supplements?

Even with our best efforts with food, we know that it’s hard to get our daily digestive wellness needs met. This is where digestive supplements, fiber, pro and prebiotics and digestive enzymes come in. Much like the purpose of multivitamins, digestive supplements help to fill in the gaps of what your gut might be missing and to help you feel better overall.

Detoxing and cleansing

To start, you might consider a gentle detox and/or cleanse to rid your body of what is slowing it down and to prepare your body to receive nutrition. At Wholly Holistic, we have several kinds of plant and herb-based detoxes and cleanses available to get you started.

Pre and Probiotics

Probiotics are live bacteria in certain foods, like fermented foods such as yogurt and sauerkraut, or supplements. Prebiotics serve as the “food” that probiotics eat. Prebiotics can be found in fruits, vegetables and whole grains and can also be taken in supplements. Together, prebiotics and probiotics work to keep your microbiome healthy.

Similar to multivitamins, pre and probiotics are often crafted based on groups of body types, such as by age and sex. Consider adding at least 10 billion to start and potentially working up to at least 60 billion for daily gut wellness. At Wholly Holistic, we have a wide variety of both refrigerated and dehydrated prebiotic and probiotic blends to choose from.

Adding Fiber

One way to keep your bowels moving and healthy is to add a daily fiber routine like psyllium husks, which come from a shrub-like herb called Plantago ovata, or plantain. Many of us have a version of this plant growing as a weed in our own backyards. Psyllium husks act as a gentle, bulk-forming laxative which relieves constipation, firms up diarrhea and may even help manage blood sugar levels and boost heart health.

Laxatives

When all else fails, laxatives can help keep your bowels and digestive system moving. At Wholly Holistic, we carry several brands of natural, plant and herb-based laxatives to help relieve occasional constipation.

Step 3: Keep Yourself Hydrated Every Day

Like our earth, your body is made mostly of water. Keeping your body hydrated is one of the most important steps you can take to keep your entire body healthy every day. Water carries nutrients to your cells, flushes out your waste, lubricates your joints, regulates your temperature, protects your organs, stabilizes your blood sugar, and more.

What happens to my body when I don’t get enough water?

When your body doesn’t have enough water, it tries to pull water from your organs, like your skin and brain, to try and function. This creates a whole host of issues (below). In fact, because you naturally fast when you sleep, your body is often already dehydrated when you wake up.

,,-Dehydration creates a number of issues in your daily lives that you may not even realize:

Headaches
Mood swings
Confusion
Dizziness, fainting
Constipation
High and low blood pressure
Feeling cold or hot all of the time
Hot flashes made worse
Hormone fluctuations
Tiredness, fatigue
Dry skin and scalp
Inflammation – many people think that inflammation happens when you have too much water, which is sometimes true, but it can actually be made worse by being dehydrated. Water helps to flush away excess fluids and many over-the-counter and prescription anti-inflammatory remedies only work when your body is hydrated. They are designed to pull the water from your body and flush out the excess water and toxins through your gut. If you’re dehydrated, the anti-inflammatories don’t have enough water in your body to pull from and may leave you more dehydrated, which may add to the issue you’re trying to fix.

How much water should I drink every day?

This depends on where your body is at in life – for example, age, exercise level, pregnancy and breastfeeding, weight, sex, etc. The answer also depends on where you live and what you do for a living. For example, people in hot climates and those who work outside or in more physically active jobs need more hydration. And, there are many other factors like people with diarrhea-related IBS may need to drink more water whereas people who are later in life may need to drink less.

A good, general rule of thumb is about half of your body weight in ounces of water every day and start with 1 glass right out of bed in the morning, before coffee, tea, and breakfast. So, if you weigh 150 pounds, you would aim for 75 ounces of water (or about 9, eight-ounce cups). Relieving your body’s overnight fast with hydration will make you feel perky and get your digestive system moving, perhaps even more so than your morning coffee.

Keep in mind, not all liquids are helpful for your daily hydration. Drinking a caffeinated beverage can reduce your kidneys’ ability to absorb water, leading you to lose more water through your kidneys. Alcohol is dehydrating, too.

How to hydrate creatively:

We know it can be hard to drink water all day long, every single day. Here are a few ways you can drink smarter, not harder.

Natural beverages, like coconut water, that contain magnesium, potassium, and calcium. These options help you retain the water that you’re drinking. While you may not want to consume a lot of this type of fluid every day, they can help break up the monotony of plain water.
Smoothies with fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables are an excellent way to not only get hydrated but to meet the other two goals in this blog: daily wellness (multivitamins) and gut health.
Bulk up your high water content fruits and veggies like watermelon, celery, cucumbers, etc.

At Wholly Holistic, we carry a wide variety of hydration helpers such as spring water, coconut water, electrolyte powders, kombucha (which also contains probiotics) and so on.

What Next?

After you meet your daily goal of multivitamins and minerals, digestive health, and hydration, the sky’s the limit! You can then add in what your individual body may need such as extra immune support, hormone balancing, cardiovascular support, thyroid support, and more.

At Wholly Holistic, we can work with you to meet your health goals. Stop in, call, or message us today to ask all your questions and to schedule a health coaching appointment with one of our registered naturopath practitioners.

See you at the shop!

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